September 11 is always a day of deep reflection for me. It was likely the first time I fully understood that the democracy and freedoms we enjoy in the United States can never be taken for granted. I was working for then-Congressman John Thune, sitting near a window on the ground floor of the Longworth House Office Building. My computer was acting up that morning, so I was on the phone with tech support when we saw that a plane had struck the first tower. We talked about the tragedy and what might have caused it as I rebooted my computer for the second time. Still on the call, we watched the second plane strike the other tower. We immediately understood that this was not an accident. It did not occur to me that the attack would hit even closer to home until a coworker’s husband called to say he had just seen a plane strike the Pentagon. As we evacuated the building, I frantically searched for a friend who had been at the Pentagon for a meeting earlier that morning. When I found her, we held each other for what felt like a long time. Then we heard aircraft approaching. People began to scatter until someone yelled, “It’s okay, those are our planes.” Amid the chaos, a sense of calm followed. We knew the brave men and women of our military had been activated to protect us. We spent the rest of the day sheltered in a coworker’s apartment a few blocks from the Capitol, trying to reach our colleagues back in South Dakota and our families to let them know we were safe. I remember thinking that evening that someday, children would learn about that day in their history classes. Years later, I have sat with my own children as they learned about September 11, 2001, sharing my own experience on that infamous day in history. Today, I remember the lives lost, the families forever changed, and the brave Americans who answered the call to serve.